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Who’s Afraid of Public Space? Exhibition Kit

Education Space at ACCA.
Education Space: Creating Art in Public, created by ACCA's artist Curator, Andrew Atchison. Artworks by Atong Atem, Ross Coulter, Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, Eugenia Lim, John Meade, Clement Meadmore, Kent Morris, James Nguyen and Victoria Pham, Tom Nicholson, Rose Nolan, Open Spatial Workshop (Terri Bird, Bianca Hester, Natasha Johns-Messenger, Scott Mitchell) Reko Rennie, and Steven Rhall. furniture has been developed by student designer team ASAP (Evan Clezy, Shengjie He, Kathleen Hoo and Sophia Koundouris) and supported by RMIT Interior Design and These Are The Projects We Do Together.
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Who’s Afraid of Public Space? is a multifaceted project of exhibitions and programs exploring the role of public culture, the contested nature of public space, and the character and composition of public life. The exhibition continues ACCA’s Big Picture series, which explores contemporary art’s relation to wider social, cultural and political contexts. 

Who’s Afraid of Public Space? is organised according to a dispersed, distributed structure, encouraging a polyphonic and polycentric understanding of our increasingly complex public realm. Taking place at ACCA over the summer months, the exhibition and programs extend across the city through a series of satellite exhibitions in collaboration with cultural partners, as well as installations, events, performances and projects in the public realm.

The exhibition at ACCA has been developed in dialogue with a diverse group of advisors, collaborators and partners, and informed by a series of workshops, Think Tanks and public projects. In considering the role of the gallery as a public space, ACCA’s four galleries have been recast as civic spaces.

ACCA’s Artist Educator, Andrew Atchison, created the Education Space: Creating Art in Public, a hybrid studio, classroom and gallery space designed to promote active participation with, and careful consideration of, public art practices and the diverse and inventive approaches artists adopt when creating artwork for public space. At the centre of the Education Space is a concise survey of maquettes, renders, moving images, costume, diagrams and artefacts drawn from both realised and propositional public works by leading contemporary artists.

To activate  the space the ACCA Education team developed a program of teaching activities that focuses on the form of the propositional artwork as an accessible, future-oriented studio activity that catalyses intangible ideas into comprehensible forms.

  1. Introduction
  2. About the Artists
  3. Key artworks
    1. Rose Nolan, Screen works (ENOUGH/NOW/EVEN/MORE/SO) 2021
    2. Reko Rennie, Remember me, Stolen Generations marker 2017–18
    3. James Nguyen and Victoria Pham, RE:SOUNDING 2020
  4. Support Material
  5. For Teachers

About the artists

Rose Nolan 

Rose Nolan lives and works in Melbourne. Nolan’s artworks are largely text based, inviting the viewer to question her message, medium and meaning. The scale of her work reg­u­lar­ly oscil­lates between the dis­crete and the mon­u­men­tal and encompasses paint­ing, site-specific instal­la­tions, large-scale sculp­tures, printmaking and book pro­duc­tion. Her works are sometimes temporary and sometimes permanent. Nolan’s practice is informed by a strong inter­est in archi­tec­ture, inte­ri­or design and graph­ic design.

Nolan has an ongoing interest in the complexity of the art object (process, materials, scale, content, history) and the ways in which it can both transform and be transformed by the space (architectural site, social and cultural context) in which it is sited. The process and meaning of such transformations are activated through each artwork’s relationship to the viewer in real time and space. 

Reko Rennie 

Reko Rennie is a Melbourne/Naarm based interdisciplinary artist who explores his Kamilaroi identity through contemporary media including sculpture, painting and installation. Self-taught his art provokes discussion surrounding Indigenous culture and identity in contemporary urban environments.

Rennie’s artworks are often autobiographical, combining the iconography of his Kamilaroi heritage with stylistic elements drawn from the visual vocabulary of graffiti. He often merges traditional diamond-shaped designs, hand-drawn symbols and repetitive geometric patterning to question traditional representations of Aboriginal identity. 

James Nguyen and Victoria Pham 

James Nguyen is a Melbourne-based interdisciplinary artist who works across documentary, installation and performance. Born in Sydney to Vietnamese immigrant parents, Nguyen’s work often explores his own and his family’s relationship to Australia, immigration and colonisation. 

Often collaborating family and friends together they create work that examines the politics of art, self-representation and how these decolonising strategies can contribute to diasporic dialogues.

Victoria Pham is an Australian writer, archaeologist, documentarian, artist and composer based in London. As an archaeologist, her specialisation is in the cognitive evolution of music, and language, and the acoustic mapping of caves. Victoria has worked at museums around the world, including at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History as a researcher and illustrator. Victoria is currently undertaking a PhD in Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, St John’s College.

Key Artworks

Rose Nolan, Screen works (ENOUGH/NOW/EVEN/MORE/SO) 2021

cardboard, graph paper, pen, coloured pencil
MCC community hub, Queen Victoria Market. Architecture by Six Degrees

This group of preparatory works includes two handmade models and a digital render derived from the process of creating the large-scale, architecturally integrated public artwork Screen works (ENOUGH/NOW/EVEN/MORE/SO) 2021. Currently viewable on the exterior of the new MCC Community Hub, opposite Queen Victoria Market on the corner of Therry and Queen Streets, Melbourne. It was developed in collaboration with Six Degrees Architects.

In Screen works (ENOUGH/NOW/EVEN/MORE/SO) 2021 stylised text appears pixelated as red and white coloured squares on the outside of the building cladding, stretching the height and breadth of the building, visible from hundreds of meters away. By enlarging, and abstracting singular words through pixelation, Nolan blurs the line between text and image. The distortion of text at this scale slows viewers’ understanding of each word, extending the time spent deciphering the installation and creating space for contemplation of the artist’s intentions. Since the late 1990’s Nolan has consistently limited her palette to red and white in reference to diverse cultural influences including white monochrome political banners, Russian revolutionary art and the aesthetics of advertising. Historically, the colour red is associated with socialism, and white with ideas of liberation. Nolan has been using these colours for much of her career, the social and political context surrounding the meaning of her works changes depending on the time and cultural context in which they are viewed. Nolan has also been influenced by modernism and utilitarian design in the creation of her works, which is reflected in her use of ‘cheap’ easily accessible materials, such as hessian, foam core and cardboard.

Discussion questions:

  • What message do you think the artist is trying to communicate?
  • What do the colours white and red make you think of? 
  • Does the artwork’s meaning change if the colours change?  How and why? 
  • How does the scale of the artwork contribute to its meaning?

Reko Rennie, Preparatory sketch and renders for Remember Me, Stolen Generations marker 2017-18, collected inkjet prints, digital renders, irregular dimensions. Courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney. Installed in Education Space: Creating Art in Public, curated by Andrew Atchison for Who's Afraid of Public Space?, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2021. Photograph: Andrew Curtis.

Reko Rennie, Remember me, Stolen Generations marker 2017–18

inkjet prints, digital renders, irregular dimensions

The preparatory sketch and digital renders for Remember Me, Stolen Generations marker 2017–18, present the design development process for a public monument by Reko Rennie that acts as a marker for acknowledgment of the Stolen Generations.

Remember me is situated at Atherton Gardens, Fitzroy, an area that was a swamp and hunting ground before colonisation. The components of the monument are positioned in the shape of a ceremonial ring, creating an open-plan seating space for reflection and commemoration. The work features a bronze centrepiece consisting of a coolamon that sits in front of nine large bronze spears arranged in an arch, positioned between two boomerang shaped benches, which are patterned with Reko’s signature graphic style of zig zag lines, traditional geometric patterns inspired by his Kamilaroi cultural heritage. All these elements come together as a symbolic connection to country, culture and identity.

Rennie’s use of bronze conceptually links to the materials use in commemorative statues of historical figures seen around Melbourne, such as ‘Captain Matthew Flinders’, on Flinders street, ‘St George and the Dragon’, outside the State Library, and ‘Drivers and Wipers’, at the Shrine of Remembrance. Remember Me, Stolen Generations marker is a poignant reminder of Australia’s overlooked Indigenous history, rarely acknowledged in public monuments.Remember me is located in the Atherton Gardens, on the corner of Gertrude and Brunswick Streets, Fitzroy, and is accessible twenty-four hours. The work is a collaboration between Reko Rennie, Urban Art Projects, and STATION.

Discussion questions:

  • Have you seen any bronze statues around Melbourne or your suburb/town? What were they commemorating?
  • How does Remember me compare to other other public sculptures? List the similarities and differences.
  • Why do you think the artist has chosen to work in bronze?
James Nguyen and Victoria Pham, RE:SOUNDING 2020, compact disc (hand stamped cover), hand-crafted drum stick, Đông Sơn drum post card. Installed in Education Space: Creating Art in Public, curated by Andrew Atchison for Who's Afraid of Public Space?, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2021. Photograph: Andrew Curtis.

James Nguyen and Victoria Pham, RE:SOUNDING 2020

RE:SOUNDING 2020: compact disc, hand stamped cover, 12.5 x 12.5 cm
Untitled (drum stick) 2021: wooden drum stick, rubberised wire, foam, 40.0 x 6.0 x 6.0 cm
Untitled (Đông Sơn drum postcard) undated: archival postcard, 14.0 x 9.4 cm 

RE:SOUNDING 2020 is a collaboration between James Nugyen and Victoria Pham. The work can be experienced as a sculptural object, museum artifact, and sound work. The work also has an extensive online component where viewers can experience the work virtually through a digital archive. It explores art, history, and culture, whilst poignantly questioning our connection to historical objects and public ownership.  

A collection of items are exhibited at ACCA – a handmade drumstick, a CD , and archival postcard, that reference the broader collaborative project. Nugyen and Pham explain that RE:SOUNDING ‘“aims to locate, record, digitise, and re-engage with the percussive sounds of the Vietnamese Bronze Age Đông Sơn drum’”. Vietnamese Đông Sơn drums have been traditionally used as instruments of resistance and warfare, and in the announcement of rain, harvests, fertility, and well-being of local communities. Displaced by colonisation and the post-war trade of Southeast Asian antiquities, most drums have been kept silent in museum collections and display cabinets across the world. The provenance of these collected objects is often in question. 

The CD on display features two recordings, an acknowledgment of Country in Vietnamese language voiced by Nguyen, and another of the Đông Sơn drum. RE:SOUNDING  furthers debates around cultural ownership and museum practices throughout history.  What can be done to keep the meaning of these objects alive and connected to the people and cultures who created them? 

Discussion questions:

  • RE:SOUNDING is an expanded form of a public artwork. How, and why?
  • Do you think people should be able to play instruments held in museum collections?
  • If you were to make a musical artwork that referenced your own culture, what would you make or use? 

For Teachers

Primary activities

Public art and maquettes: thinking big, starting small.

Compile images of two public artworks and their maquettes to examine. As a class, discuss what students see, think and wonder about the artworks and their corresponding maquettes. Gather a range of readily available or recycled art making materials, anything available at your school or home, like wire, foam, plastics, string, paper, paint, pencils, cardboard. Students may collect recycled materials from home to contribute to the class supply of materials. Ask your students to create a mind map using words and drawings to answer the following inquiry question: What would you make for your favourite public space? How big would it be, what would it be made from, and where would it go? Students then create a maquette for their imagined artwork based on the ideas they presented in their mind map. As an extension, students may write a wall label describing their maquette, install it in the classroom for an exhibition, and/or print an A3 photo of its proposed public location to present with the maquette.

Australian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Years F-6

Explore ideas and artworks from different cultures and times, including artwork by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to use as inspiration for their own representations (ACAVAM106) (ACAVAM110) (ACAVAM114)

Use materials, techniques and processes to explore visual conventions when making artworks (ACAVAM107) (ACAVAM111) (ACAVAM115)

Create and display artworks to communicate ideas to an audience (ACAVAM108) (ACAVAM112) (ACAVAM116)

Respond to visual artworks and consider where and why people make visual artworks, starting with visual artworks from Australia, including visual artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACAVAR109) (ACAVAR113)(ACAVAR117) 

Victorian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Levels F-6

Explore and Express Ideas (VCAVAE017) (VCAVAE021) (VCAVAE025) (VCAVAE029) 

Visual Arts Practices (VCAVAV018) (VCAVAV022) (VCAVAV026) (VCAVAV030) 

Respond and Interpret (VCAVAR020) (VCAVAR024) (VCAVAR028) (VCAVAR032)

Curriculum Interpretation

This activity is devised in response to the range of maquettes, public sculptures and ideas explored in the artist’s works in Who’s afraid of Public Space?, and is intended to build students’ capacity to consider and utilise experimental methods for creating sculptures and drawings.

Students will think about making art embedded in existing structures, using scrap materials to create artworks, exploring opacity and translucency, and experimenting with layering two- and three-dimensional materials and objects. 

By undertaking these activities, students:

  • Explore the relationship between art and public space.
  • Experiment with drawing and sculpture, to plan and create a speculative artwork for public space.
  • Consider the use of recycled and waste materials as fine art materials
  • Communicate ideas about art through writing and drawing
  • Consider the intent, interpretation, and installation of art in public space.

Secondary activities

Public artwork proposal

As a class, investigate and discuss what public art is, how it happens, and why is it made, using ACCA Education’s Public Art resource and Melbourne Public Art Trail as research aids.  In groups, students create mind maps using words and drawings to consider the following inquiry questions: How does public art promote wellbeing?; How could public art solve a problem?; Does public art have to be permanent, and does it always need to have a purpose? Each group creates an artwork proposal for a chosen public space. Students may create drawings, maquettes, digital renders, or 3D printed models to communicate their ideas. Each group presents their mind mapped ideas and their public art proposal. To conclude, discuss how important public opinion is to the success of public art.

Australian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Years 7-10

Experiment with visual arts conventions and techniques (ACAVAM118) (ACAVAM125)

Develop planning skills for art-making by exploring techniques and processes used by different artists(ACAVAM120) (ACAVAM127)

Practise techniques and processes to enhance representation of ideas in their art-making (ACAVAM121) (ACAVAM128)

Victorian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Levels 7-10

Explore and express ideas (VCAVAE033)(VCAVAE034)(VCAVAE040)(VCAVAE041) 

Visual Arts Practices (VCAVAV035) (VCAVAV042)(VCAVAV036)(VCAVAV043) 

Respond and Interpret (VCAVAR039)(VCAVAR046)

Present and Perform (VCAVAP037) (VCAVAP044)

Curriculum Interpretation

This activity responds to public artworks in Melbourne, and is intended to get students thinking about the variety of public art forms in their communities, and is intended to introduce students to ideas related to artistic intent and meaning, and the diverse working methods employed by artists in public space

The activity aims to build students’ creative and critical thinking capacities by supporting students to conceptualise, plan, design and communicate ideas for a site specific public artwork. 

By undertaking these activities, students:

  • Explore the inquiry questions to develop an understanding of the diverse types of public art and how it is made
  • Analyse how public artworks can be created to communicate a message or theme. 
  • Understand connections between artistic intent and presentation, and develop and communicate a concept for creating their own public artwork.
  • Understand the practice and processes of a contemporary artist working in public space.
  • Explore mind mapping as a visual and generative tool for art making.
  • Experiment with a range of media to visually communicate their artwork proposal.

Terms of Use

This education resource has been produced by ACCA Education to provide information and classroom support material for education visits to the exhibition A Biography of Daphne. The reproduction and communication of this resource is permitted for educational purposes only.

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Catalyst DET Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources